The author, John Marek, is a writer and CEO of the Anson Economic Development Partnership.
Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot passed away a couple of weeks ago at age 84. Younger audiences, if they’ve heard of him at all, likely know him for one iconic song, but he was a prolific songwriter who produced a string of hits throughout the ’60s and ’70s, including “Early Morning Rain,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “The Circle Is Small,” “Carefree Highway” and “Sundown.”
I saw Lightfoot in concert at the Toledo Zoo Amphitheater in the early ’90s. It was a good show as he worked his way through a catalog of familiar favorites, but he knew the song the people of the Lake Erie port city had come to hear – “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” – and played it with a sad soulfulness that almost made you believe it was the first time he’d sung it, not the ten-thousandth. In an interview for a documentary that aired in 2019, he revealed that the hit single version was the first take. He recorded a dozen more, but none equaled the raw emotion of the first effort. He felt it as a sort of divine inspiration, as though some greater power wanted the story told in just that way.
On Nov. 9, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald left the port of Superior, Wisc., with a full load of iron ore destined for Detroit. The ship was captained by Ernest McSorley and manned by a crew of 29 sailors. The weather forecast was not favorable, with strong winds and heavy rain predicted for the northern part of Lake Superior, but November storms were part of the job description for a crew that was experienced and confident in their abilities.
However, as the Edmund Fitzgerald approached Whitefish Bay, the storm intensified. The winds reached gale force and waves up to 35 feet high pounded the ship. Despite the rough conditions, the crew continued on their course, relying on the Edmund Fitzgerald’s sheer bulk and sturdy construction to weather the storm.
However, as the night wore on the situation grew increasingly dangerous. At 7:10 p.m. on Nov. 10, the crew sent a distress call reporting that the ship was in trouble, taking on water and in need of immediate assistance. The Coast Guard launched a search and rescue mission, but by the time they arrived at the scene the Edmund Fitzgerald had already sunk to the bottom of the lake.
The exact cause of the sinking remains a mystery, and there has been much speculation and debate about what went wrong. Many experts believe that the ship was simply overwhelmed by the sheer force of the storm. There is also speculation that the ship’s hatch covers were not properly secured, which allowed water to enter the ship and cause it to sink, or that there may have been a structural weakness in the vessel that contributed to its break up. Lightfoot’s lyrics suggest, “They might have split up or they might have capsized/They may have broke deep and took water,” but the song was written before the wreck was discovered. The ship did break up, although probably not on the surface. It sits in two sections 170 feet apart in 530 feet of water.
The Fitzgerald was not the first large boat to sink on the Great Lakes, but it is undoubtedly the most famous and also the last, at least to date. Given modern communications, weather forecasting and naval architecture, it’s hard to imagine a scenario that could lead to the loss of such a large vessel. But you just never know.